Pacquiao guaranteed $18M in Rios fight

From a report by Bev Llorente, ABS-CBN News North America

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Filipino fight king Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao is guaranteed $18 million for his November 24 fight against Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios, which will take place in Macau.

Top Rank chief executive Bob Arum revealed that the former pound-for-pound king is guaranteed $18 million, while Rios will earn a flat fee of $4 million.

“Manny is guaranteed $18 million, but we hope at the end of the day, he will do well enough so that he will get around $30 million,” Arum said.

While this is certainly a large amount, $30 million is a far cry from the $41.5 million that Pacquiao’s rival, unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather Jr., was guaranteed to earn in his clash against Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last Saturday at the MGM Grand.

A veteran sports writer, Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, said it is unlikely that a super-fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather will ever take place, especially as the Filipino still needs to recover from his knockout loss at the hands of Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez.

“I just don’t see Pacquiao, at his stage of his career, challenging Floyd Mayweather,” Iole said. “There was a time, 2009 and 2010, it would have been a good fight. But not right now.”

Meantime, Arum also warned Pacquiao not to look past Rios and to give his undivided attention to training for their November showdown.

“I’ve counseled Manny again and I’m gonna adhere to that discipline,” said Arum. “Don’t look ahead to the next fight. Concentrate on Brandon Rios, and after that fight, there will be plenty of time on who he will fight next.”